April 12, 2014

When it's cool to be dumb, Ctd

"One of the shocking things when I go back to Canada is they cut off the tall trees — it’s sort of like everyone’s the same. Everyone’s going to be the same, we’re all okay. Just the, sort of, cultural ‘we’re all okay.’"

"I grew up being a socialist and I have problems with it because I grew up in Canada [and] I’ve spent a lot of time in Scandinavia, where I believe countries legislate out creativity. They cut off the tall trees. Everyone’s a C-minus. I came to America from Canada because Canada is stultifyingly boring and incredibly hypocritical. Thanks, Canada."

Russell Kane (@russell_kane) said on the third episode of series 3 of BBC 3's Free Speech:

"I couldn't wait to get out [of school] and restart my education and do it on my own. Where I could be proud of getting high grades instead of being bullied."

"If you get dumped in a bin where the people that are popular are the hardest, who's taken drugs first, who's lost their virginity first; guess what: your results go down. That's why, I know the grammar system is amoral, and people were told they were failed and dumped in secondary moderns, but if I'f been given the chance to be around other bright, poor kids I might have been in with a chance of doing better at school. Do you know what: that's why social mobility has gone down so much since the 60s. Because if you're born in a council estate now at the top of a tower block to a single mother, you're got less chance of getting to Oxford than you did 30 years ago, and that cannot be right."

He said at 25 minutes:

"There's a muddling up of two familiar concepts - equality and fairness. Sometimes it's not the right thing to make everyone the same and equal."

And:

"I don't know why we're ashamed of creaming people off. You wouldn't have said to Usain Bolt, you're fast at running byt everyone has to have the same PE, otherwise it's not fair."

Friedrich Hayek said:

"There is all the difference in the world between treating people equally and attempting to make them equal."

My earlier posts in the 'When it's cool to be dumb' series can be accessed here, here (UDA prisoner), here, here, here, here, here,here, here and here. With the Simpsons here. On the Huffington Post UK here. With loyalist playwright put into hiding for his broadmindedness, Gary Mitchell, here.

THE NEW IRISHMAN

A blog promoting a broader view of Irish history and identity. A blog examining Irish unionism and presenting a pro-Union stance that is positive and progressive.

"Unionists need to understand their own history. They need to understand the causes and consequences of that history. They need to understand the nature of their relationship with Dublin, London, republicanism/nationalism and with each other. They need to understand and explain the idealism which underpins their beliefs and they need to begin to “imagine and forge a future illuminated by the unfulfilled promises of our past”."

Brian on Social Media

About BRIAN

When Brian is not writing here he will be posting his thoughts and readings on Tumblr, his repository for interesting words and quote. If it falls quiet there, something will be happening on Brian's Twitter.